


Cheetah

by yeaka



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12964092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Video games are trickier than boyfriends.





	Cheetah

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

For what feels like the hundredth time in a row, Pavel’s avatar dies a fiery death. His car goes spinning off the tracks, slams into the wall, and promptly explodes, tossing scrap metal everywhere that doesn’t seem to hinder the other racers in the slightest. The condescending chime sounds, filling the screen with the infuriating message: _You Lose!_

Pavel’s fingers tighten around the old-fashioned controller. His rage is simmering just below the surface, and he’s tempted to let it out, to throw the flimsy plastic thing halfway across his apartment. R&R was supposed to be _fun_ , and he thought these old non-VR games would be a joy, and this one _was_ , up until the levels started getting so insanely difficult that his vocabulary was reduced to Russian curses. The worst part is that he doesn’t even _care_ anymore—he just wants to unlocked the rest of the game and see how the plot ends, even if he has to take the whole console apart and rewire it to do it. He gives the rectangular box in front of the screen a scathing look, like his threat will make it hurriedly skip the current level.

He’s just about to press the ‘retry’ button when his buzzer sounds. Pavel shoots the console a warning glare, daring it to move, and gets up to face reality. After staring so intensely at the screen so long, it’s almost strange walking through his apartment. For one brief second, his mind entertains the insane thought that reality has amazing graphics.

He keys the door open, ready to tell off whatever sales person has come to bother him now, but instead his mouth snaps closed. Hikaru grins at him, all done up in a jeans and a black sweater for their off-duty date, looking overtly handsome and attentive.

Pavel forgot about their date entirely. He’s still wearing the hideous sweatpants and pajama shirt that he woke up in, because he’d set aside an hour to get ready before Hikaru arrived, and that entire hour got swallowed in his game. He was so busy being demolished that he forgot the time. Hikaru gives him a slow once over, then lifts a dark brow and asks, sounding more amused than mad, “Trying to start a new fashion trend?”

A blush stains Pavel’s cheeks. He steps aside to let Hikaru in and sheepishly admits, “I... ah, lost track of time.”

“You?” Hikaru teases, like Pavel’s too perfect to ever get anything wrong. Then he spots the large ‘you lose’ banner still glowing on the screen and inevitably wanders closer.

As Pavel follows, he sighs and explains, “I just got so caught up in this stupid game...”

“It’s that good?”

“No, it’s that _hard!_ I hawe been stuck on the same two-minute lewel for _three hours_! I feel like I am losing my mind!” About half an hour ago, he passed the mark where his eyes started to water, but then his anguish hardened into a cold wrath and he steeled over again. He’s still frustrated beyond belief. Hikaru settles down onto the couch they’ve often lounged on together, and he curiously picks up the controller.

He offers, “Mind if I give it a shot?”

Pavel actually scoffs. When Hikaru gives him a look, Pavel wanders over to plop down beside him, trying to explain, “You just wouldn’t stand a chance—you hawen’t got any practice like I hawe, and I got through the whole game up to it, and I still hawen’t ewen gotten _close_.”

Hikaru nods and hums that he’s listening, even though he’s clicked the ‘retry’ button before Pavel’s finished talking. The racers all reset at the checkered line, a horn sounds, and then Hikaru’s player bursts forward ahead of the competition. He didn’t even ask what the controls were.

Pavel stares, open-mouthed, as Hikaru zooms around the racetrack. He leaps over the first pit with ease, landing perfectly to execute the sharp turn that follows without so much as tapping the wall, while an NPC slams into it and shatters. Hikaru keeps going, down a pipe and around a sudden figure eight, out over another pit. He manages to snag every boost he passes. He uses them in quick succession, always attaining more. He makes the first lap in first place with his vehicle still completely in tact. By the end of his first lap, Pavel’s vehicle was always smoking.

The second lap goes by just as astonishingly. Pavel finds himself leaning forward, gripping the couch cushions on either side of him. Hikaru obliterates the finish line for the third time, and then he immediately pauses the game before the congratulatory cutscene starts. 

He passes the controller over to Pavel, smiling like Pavel’s own knight in shining armour. He sort of is.

Pavel doesn’t even know what to say. He quickly un-pauses, just to immediately access the menu and save. Then he turns back to Hikaru, flabbergasted. A part of him is shocked, another part jealous, a third part ashamed of himself for failing so horribly. Mostly, he’s impressed. So, so impressed. Both with Hikaru for winning and with himself for bagging such a winner. 

Hikaru charmingly asks, “Do you want to get changed for dinner now?”

Pavel glances down at his controller. Then he gets up to go put it away, shutting off the console and the screen, safe in the knowledge that he’s past the nightmare, and that even if another should come, apparently his boyfriend can get him right through it.

It doesn’t seem wise now to let that boyfriend leave, not while there are still so many levels left in the game, and Pavel clearly needs him.

So when Pavel comes back to the couch, he takes his seat in Hikaru’s lap, and he decides, “Let’s skip right to dessert.”

He kisses Hikaru hard, and Hikaru surges back, even better with love than racing.


End file.
